iRacing is regarded as the gold standard for competitive sim racing. No other simulation features a comparable, dedicated multiplayer system that treats the races like real events. RaceDepartment writer Yannik Haustein is taking his first, long-overdue steps in the sim now and takes you along with him – this time, he recaps the Daytona 24 special event.
Endurance races are nothing new to me: Over the past year, I have participated in races from four to 24 hours in Assetto Corsa, the basics were present before the iRacing Daytona 24. A major difference: This time, our team was not set until the week of the race, not much practice – especially together – was possible beforehand. Since the Daytona road course is not among the more complicated ones in the world, I figured this would be alright, though. How to race in traffic could be practiced on one of the countless public Daytona practice servers before the event.
As we did not enter an LMP2 vehicle but rather a Mercedes-AMG GT3, we had to be alert for the significantly faster prototypes to avoid problems while getting lapped. For me, this marked a debut in the slower class of a multiclass race – and the team was all-new as well: Before Daytona, I had been racing with a maximum of three teammates, this time, however, we were five sim racers in total. This meant long breaks between stints, added to by several triple stints that had been scheduled.
Per our schedule, my first stint was due about nine hours into the race. However, in endurance racing, things usually do not entirely go to plan – though at first, it did: We had qualified second with the exact same time as the pole sitter and were fighting for the lead in class during the first quarter of the race and even held it for quite a while. Towards 9pm, the first problems surfaced: Two spins under braking for Turn 1 – one resulting in a drive-through penalty due to us sliding through the pit exit – and an impact against the wall on the exit of the Bus Stop Chicane that resulted in seven minutes of repair time, made us fall down the order.
At this point, we decided on an early driver swap, meaning I was in the car much earlier than planned. No problem, I thought, that would mean a longer night’s sleep for me. Even though I had not driven in the race before that point, the first lapses in concentration snuck in – I had been in the rig almost the entire time since the start, after all. My triple stint contained one or two spins as a result, as well as a slight impact with the wall at the International Horseshoe after I had gotten into the marbles under braking. Repair time: Four minutes.
This had dropped us far down the order. Still, the fast teammates that drove the first stints were still waiting for their second run in the car, so a lot was still possible. With this thought, I went to bed – and when I woke up in the morning and looked at our Discord chat, we were out of the race. An LMP2 car had taken us out in the chicane at dusk, continuing with the repair time we had on hand would not have made sense. We may have been way back in the classification already, but I still felt some disappointment.
Despite this, my first endurance race in iRacing was a positive experience – not least because the system behind it was so simple. Unlike in ACC, no specific join order for teams is required, and your teammates can adjust pit settings while they are not in the car, allowing you to simply focus on driving. A welcome change from the sometimes hectic end-of-stint moments in ACC.
Endurance races are nothing new to me: Over the past year, I have participated in races from four to 24 hours in Assetto Corsa, the basics were present before the iRacing Daytona 24. A major difference: This time, our team was not set until the week of the race, not much practice – especially together – was possible beforehand. Since the Daytona road course is not among the more complicated ones in the world, I figured this would be alright, though. How to race in traffic could be practiced on one of the countless public Daytona practice servers before the event.
As we did not enter an LMP2 vehicle but rather a Mercedes-AMG GT3, we had to be alert for the significantly faster prototypes to avoid problems while getting lapped. For me, this marked a debut in the slower class of a multiclass race – and the team was all-new as well: Before Daytona, I had been racing with a maximum of three teammates, this time, however, we were five sim racers in total. This meant long breaks between stints, added to by several triple stints that had been scheduled.
Per our schedule, my first stint was due about nine hours into the race. However, in endurance racing, things usually do not entirely go to plan – though at first, it did: We had qualified second with the exact same time as the pole sitter and were fighting for the lead in class during the first quarter of the race and even held it for quite a while. Towards 9pm, the first problems surfaced: Two spins under braking for Turn 1 – one resulting in a drive-through penalty due to us sliding through the pit exit – and an impact against the wall on the exit of the Bus Stop Chicane that resulted in seven minutes of repair time, made us fall down the order.
At this point, we decided on an early driver swap, meaning I was in the car much earlier than planned. No problem, I thought, that would mean a longer night’s sleep for me. Even though I had not driven in the race before that point, the first lapses in concentration snuck in – I had been in the rig almost the entire time since the start, after all. My triple stint contained one or two spins as a result, as well as a slight impact with the wall at the International Horseshoe after I had gotten into the marbles under braking. Repair time: Four minutes.
This had dropped us far down the order. Still, the fast teammates that drove the first stints were still waiting for their second run in the car, so a lot was still possible. With this thought, I went to bed – and when I woke up in the morning and looked at our Discord chat, we were out of the race. An LMP2 car had taken us out in the chicane at dusk, continuing with the repair time we had on hand would not have made sense. We may have been way back in the classification already, but I still felt some disappointment.
Despite this, my first endurance race in iRacing was a positive experience – not least because the system behind it was so simple. Unlike in ACC, no specific join order for teams is required, and your teammates can adjust pit settings while they are not in the car, allowing you to simply focus on driving. A welcome change from the sometimes hectic end-of-stint moments in ACC.
What I learned
- It pays to look after your car in iRacing. Compared to ACC, the damage model is more detailed and less forgiving, meaning the risk of having to retire from a race is higher. Additionally, there is damage that can not be repaired, for example to the floor, which will then stay with the car for the entire rest of the race.
- The same holds true for the tires: Looking after them allows you to do even triple stints which in turn saves time during pit stops.
- Saving fuel is extremely important in a GT3 at Daytona: To get to a stint length of about 60 minutes, early upshifts are not enough. Instead, we coasted with the clutch engaged before reaching the braking point to minimize fuel usage. It is a good idea to practice this technique beforehand, as it gave me some trouble at first during the beginning of my first stint.
- Indicators for GT3 vehicles (like they use in real life) would be very useful for multiclass races, they do not work in iRacing, however.
![Luca [OT]](/data/avatars/s/3235/3235113.jpg?1697196734){kind=avatar}